Part 5: Herman Miller WHY

This is my fifth post sharing with you the Herman Miller WHY series.

The Forward Pull

In this segment of Herman Miller WHY, 33-year veteran of the company's Research and Design department Don Goeman talks about their two-decade-long collaboration with German design firm Studio 7.5 and why he thinks it still feels fresh after all these years.

He recalls meeting Burkhard Schmitz, Claudia Plikat, and Carola and Roland Zwick for the first time twenty years ago: their casual attire when Herman Miller employees were still wearing coats and ties, their hip quirkiness and their rigorous approach to work.

Goeman explains why he considers Studio 7.5 the best seating designers in the world and why he feels they are rarely following the Herman Miller lead, but instead are pulling them forward.

(I would urge you to check out Studio 7.5's website if you haven't already. It is a perfect example of how creative this group is...not like most sites I've visited, for sure!)

Don Goeman
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Claudia Plikat, Roland Zwick, Carola Zwick, Burkhard Schmitz
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Setu chair and table, Puzzle,  Mirra 1 and Mirra 2
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Roland Zwick,  Claudia Plikat, Burkhard Schmitz and Carola Zwick
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Setu chair
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Mirra chair
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You can read the entire piece at the Herman Miller site.

Part 4: Herman Miller WHY

This is my fourth post sharing with you the Herman Miller WHY series.

Work Life

This segment of the Herman Miller WHY series focuses on collaboration. For a year, the company's Insight and Exploration team observed various workplaces and came up with a universal "anatomy of collaboration." Even though how workers collaborate appeared to vary widely, the team identified 10 activities that go on in all offices every day.

Senior Researcher Shilpi Kumar notes that, “outlining these collaborative work behaviors will empower designers and decision makers with a greater understanding for how people really work, and will enable more informed choices in regards to office spaces.”

Chat
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Converse
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Co-Create
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Divide & Conquer
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Huddle
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Warm Up, Cool Down
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Show & Tell
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Process & Respond
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Create
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Contemplate
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To read the entire piece with an explanation of each activity, visit the Herman Miller site.

Part 3: Herman Miller WHY

This is my third post sharing with you the Herman Miller WHY series.

Irving Harper: The Mediums Beyond the Message 

In this segment of the Herman Miller WHY series, Amber Bravo examines Irving Harper's two-decade stint as design director of the George Nelson Office and the impact his print design had on client Herman Miller.

According to Bravo, "...the Swiss magazine Graphis noted in a 1953 survey of his print work for the Nelson Office, it’s an approach not dissimilar to that of an architect. 'The page on which to print is regarded as a site on which to build…. Pictorial material, often broken into fragments, is organized by asymmetrical harmonies.' From his start working with Nelson in 1947 through his tenure as design director at the office until 1963, Harper brought a visual coherence and energy to everything he created—from furniture, to ads, to clocks—but it's in the printed collateral that his approach to design as a total experience is most easily gleaned. Be it evoking three-dimensional spatial gestures into a two-dimensional magazine spread, for example, or turning a functional object like a clock into a graphic abstraction, or giving a simple typographic treatment the textural quality of a swath of fabric, everything he designs has a deeper sense of dimension."

Magazine ad, 1960
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Magazine ads, 1952 (left) and 1960 (right)
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Magazine ad for Interiors, 1952
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Magazine ad for Interiors: 1949 (left) and magazine ad: "Herman Miller Collection," 1952
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Magazine ad, 1948
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Magazine ad, 1949
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Irving Harper's logo for Herman Miller, 1947
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You can read the entire piece at the Herman Miller site.

Part 2: Herman Miller WHY

This is my second post sharing with you the Herman Miller WHY series.

Above Ground with Leon Ransmeier

In the segment entitled Above Ground Level with Leon Ransmeier, designer Ransmeier and photographer Geordie Wood explore the thinking behind the new AGL Table Group, as well as table design in general.

Leon Ransmeier in his Financial District studio
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About table design, Ransmeier observes that the comfort of a table is "specific in relation to our body proportions and the size of the chairs that we sit in. For example, the standard height for a dining table or desk is derived from its relationship to the chair, which is derived from the distance of your knees to the floor when you are in a seated position. So you could say that the height of a table has evolved out of the length of people’s shins."

He also examines Westerners' need for furniture...so great a need, in fact, that we will improvise to create a seat or a table out of anything near us.

Improvised tables in Chinatown (left) and the Staten Island Ferry (right)
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More improvised table from the Staten Island Ferry
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Ransmeier notes that even when no flat surface is available, we use our laps or our laptop computers as stand-ins and sit on anything that elevates us off the ground.

Working outside the New York Stock Exchange
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Photographer Geordie Wood captures a series of stark but beautiful surfaces in the Financial District.

Unconventional surfaces in the Financial District
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You can read the entire piece at the Herman Miller site. And for those of you who want to get a glimpse at the new AGL Table Group, which is so versatile that it can be used for dining, an executive desk or a conference table, take a look at these exciting images.

AGL Table Group
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AGL Table Group
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AGL Table Group, with pull-out tray and cleverly hidden power strip
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Part 1: Herman Miller WHY

108 Years of Herman Miller (in 108 Seconds)

Herman Miller, Inc. has been in business for 108 years. To launch WHY, a new digital platform exploring the behind-the-scene stories about the company, the company hired Dutch animators Part of a Bigger Plan to answer—in just 108 seconds—the question of why Herman Miller has remained a design leader for over 108 years. It is truly a visual delight!

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Over the next few weeks, I'll be featuring more of the WHY series. Of course, if you don't want to wait for my posts, you can rush right over to the Herman Miller site and check it out for yourself.

Don't forget that we're giving away a Barcelona chair and ottoman on Saturday.

Click here for details.